Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong reminds crypto community that insider trading is illegal

Brian Armstrong has a message for crypto traders: “Insider trading of any kind is illegal. Do it, and you’ll go to prison.” The Coinbase CEO made the statement on X (formerly Twitter) today, addressing the meme coin frenzy that has taken over the market.

Brian said he isn’t against meme coins, but he’s calling out those taking it too far—trading on inside information, rigging launches, and scamming retail investors.

His warning comes after Hayden Davis, the self-proclaimed “launch strategist” behind multiple political meme coins, admitted to market manipulation, insider trading, and sniper wallets in an interview with Coffeezilla on Saturday. Hayden launched $LIBRA, the Argentinian meme token that wiped $4.6 billion from the market in hours.

“This is an insiders’ game. It’s an unregulated casino,” Hayden said. He detailed how the elites get in early, manipulating prices before dumping on retail investors. He even admitted that some insiders received access to Trump’s token at a private dinner in Washington, D.C., before the public launch.

Hayden seemed almost indifferent to the damage. “I thought some of these meme coins could turn into something real,” he said. “But the reality is, it’s just a game. The people who know how to play win. The rest lose.”

Brian says meme coins still deserve their flowers

Brian addressed the meme coin explosion, acknowledging that while some tokens are “silly, offensive, or even fraudulent”, they’re an inevitable part of crypto’s evolution.

“Meme coins have been with us since the beginning – Dogecoin is still one of the most popular coins. Even Bitcoin is somewhat of a memecoin (one could argue so is the U.S. dollar, once it was disconnected from gold),” Brian said.

He compared meme coins to the early internet, where pointless animated GIFs eventually became part of something much bigger. “New technologies often look like a toy but evolve into something much more powerful over time,” wrote Brian.

Coinbase, he said, believes in free market capitalism. If a token is legal and customers want to trade it, they should be allowed to make that choice. But he made one thing clear: “Some meme coins have clearly gone too far lately, to the extent people are insider trading. This is illegal, and people should understand that you will go to prison for this.”

Brian added that: “Don’t break the law! And don’t try to get rich quick. You should get rich by contributing real lasting value to society (or at least be trying – it’s not easy!).”